Researchers study link between teen pregnancy, poverty

Social service providers in the Tulsa area have asked researchers from The Oklahoma State University Center of Family Resilience to help end poverty and teen pregnancy.

The study is part of the Tulsa Teen Pregnancy Prevention Coalition, which is joined by multiple social service organizations.    

Ronald Cox, OSU Cooperative Extension Family Science specialist and director of the OSU Center for Family Resilience in Tulsa, is working with other colleagues associated with the Center of Family Resilience on this extensive study that could pinpoint the main factors of teen pregnancy in Oklahoma.  

"The issue of teen pregnancy has serious social and financial consequences for the individuals and families caught in this cycle, as well as for the state of Oklahoma," Cox said.  "Our goal is to understand the underlying factors contributing to the high rates of teen pregnancy in Oklahoma and ultimately to devise effective strategies for reducing the numbers of young people affected."

Not only has Oklahoma's teen birth rate risen 7.4 percent in recent years, one of the few states where the rate has gone up, but Oklahoma is also consistently ranked among the top 10 states with the highest rates of teen pregnancy.

The study has been made possible by the George Kaiser Family Foundation, which is funding the survey.  

The GKFF is a charitable organization dedicated to breaking the cycle of poverty through investments in early childhood education, community health, social services and civic enhancement, according to its website.   

Cox said the GKFF has taken an interest in the teen pregnancy rates in Oklahoma because its main focus is to end poverty.  Cox also said statistics show poverty stems from teen pregnancies in most cases.  

"Statistically, the chances are very high that the mother and their child will stay in poverty," Cox said.  

The study will target seventh through 11th-graders and look at a broad range of contextual measures, such as youths' relationships with their parents and teachers, depression and anxiety, social norms, peer pressure and the ages of their partners to help determine what is leading to the teen pregnancy problem, according to the Division of Agriculture Sciences and Natural Resources press release.  

About 700 teens in the Tulsa area will be surveyed as part of the study, which will be followed by a smaller survey of 80 students for 30 days to get an idea of a month in the life of a Tulsa teen.

Cox said the survey will be done at random, like putting a lot of pieces of paper into a fish bowl.  

About 300 parents will be surveyed, as well, on their attitudes toward sexual education for teens and factors that may influence unsafe sex.

Cox said preliminary data will be available at the end of the year and the final data, the supplementary data, will be available next spring.  

"The data available next spring will be mainly descriptive results," Cox said. "We will analyze the data that will give us some predictors of what the teen pregnancy factors stem from."